The rising number of resident students may give the impression that the university’s student body is growing, but the enrollment numbers paint a different picture.

With 5,916 students enrolled in 2012 followed by a slight drop to 5,870 in 2013, the university has only grown in the number of resident students rather than total enrollment growth, shifting the once-commuter campus to a residential one.

While final enrollment numbers for 2014 won’t be available until the 20th day of class, Keith Lamb, vice president of enrollment management and student affairs, said the attendance at this year’s summer orientations, known as Spirit Days, was nearly identical to last year’s numbers.

“We did good during the summer with Spirit Days. Our numbers were about the same as last year roughly, which is good. Last year was a huge summer for us,” Lamb said. “Really now where we’re at is we need to see a pretty healthy, similar to what we saw last summer, regular registration.”

In another departure from previous years, Lamb said an additional abbreviated Spirit Day was offered for local students and their families.

“We knew last year we essentially ran out of capacity for Spirit Days students. We had to overfill Spirit Days sessions to meet demand, so we knew we needed to add a Spirit Days session somewhere, and that was the strategy,” Lamb said. “We had heard from a lot of local students and their families, ‘Look, we know a lot about Midwestern, we don’t need to come out there and spend the night for two days. We’re familiar because we’re from here so we want an abbreviated version.’ ”

Last year Lamb said the university was ramping up its marketing to students in the Dallas/Forth Worth and Houston areas to increase enrollment.

“Because of the talk about focusing on Dallas and Houston and places like that, it doesn’t mean we’ve neglected local,” Lamb said. “We still offer the scholarships to the local ISDs, we still send local high school students direct mail pieces that are specific to them.”